Letter from Mark Brown

Please see below the letter from Mark Brown of Buffalo Trace Distillery regarding their 4th of July festivities. Make special note of Elmer's new great-grandchild, and the release of the Thomas H. Handy uncut rye being added to this year's release of the Antique collection.

Jeff

Hello,Just a short note to wish you a very happy 4th of July holiday weekend, we hope you have a super holiday.
Here at the Trace, we are busy preparing for the Great Buffalo Chase - our annual 5k race through the distillery. Yes, we fully expect to have some runners come up missing as the wonderful smell of all that aging whiskey proves to be too much of a temptation. Attached and below, please find a photo from last year's starting line, complete with obligatory Buffalo pacer!! Registration begins at 7:00 a.m. on July 4th and the race starts at 8:00 a.m. All proceeds go to our local VFW to help defray the cost of the evening's firework display that they host.In our last message, we were silly enough to mention how easy the winter weather had been, big mistake!!! Shortly after writing the Easter message, two of our oldest warehouses were struck by a tornado that blew through the distillery in the dead of night, see picture of the landmark Warehouse C below, picture also attached. Thankfully, no-one was injured and most amazing of all, not a single barrel left the buildings!!! Since then, we have recovered all of the bricks, cleaned them and are in the process of completely restoring the warehouses using the original bricks (see picture to the right below, also attached). Interestingly enough, the barrels at top left of the picture have been exposed to the elements for some 12 weeks now and have received some extra special aging as a result. So keep your eyes peeled for a future special release of "I survived the tornado of 2006" whiskeys!!!Our very own Master Distiller Emeritus, Elmer T. Lee became a great grandfather in May. His grandson and granddaughter-in-law are the proud parents of a happy, healthy baby girl. Elmer has been all over the distillery showing pictures of baby Lillyan Grayce. Lilly, as they call her is quite a cutie!!

Finally, we have been receiving e-mails about the 2006 Antique Collection release and whether or not there would be any new items in the line up, in particular whether or not there would ever be an uncut / unfiltered Sazerac rye whiskey. Funny you should ask, there will indeed! Sazerac's - Thomas H. Handy Uncut & Unfiltered Rye Whiskey! And who you may ask is Thomas H. Handy? Thomas Handy was a bartender at our original Sazerac Coffeehouse in New Orleans during the late 1800's and it was Handy who first used rye whiskey in a Sazerac Cocktail rather than the traditional brandy. It is Thomas, therefore, that we have to thank for today's recipe for a great Sazerac.In signing off, there has been quite a lot going on at the Trace and we don't expect it to slow down any time soon, but if you are in the area don't be a stranger. Please come and see us we would love to show you around.
From everyone here at the distillery, we wish you a safe and happy Independence Day!Mark and all the folks at Buffalo Trace Distillery.